How Brazil's changing working class is reshaping the presidential race

Brazil's changing working class is reshaping its presidential race ahead of Sunday's run-off between President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and right-wing challenger Flavio Bolsonaro, the BBC reports from Osasco, a former industrial city near Sao Paulo.

Osasco voted for Lula in 2022 but has since swung to Bolsonaro. Union leader Gilberto Almazan told the BBC that shuttered factories - "metal, chemical, textile" - were replaced by shopping malls, and that "the profile of the working class changed." Millions now work in the gig economy, a shift Almazan calls "Uber-isation," and many of these workers want "more freedom, flexibility of days and hours" rather than traditional union structures.

Lula, 80, a working-class hero credited with record-low unemployment and taking Brazil off the UN Hunger Map in earlier terms, has lost ground among voters like Robson, 53, a municipal worker in Osasco, who says families now face choices between paying "an instalment for your car, or put food on the table."

Bolsonaro has proposed cutting government spending, ministries and some taxes, and supporters such as lawyer Gisele Bonfim say he brings "the hope of change." The growth of evangelical churches, now claiming about a quarter of Brazilians, has boosted his campaign; Pastor Silas Malafaia argues Bolsonaro shares the church's values on family and against gender "ideology."

Lula's camp is betting on mass mobilisation, with one supporter, Leila, saying many non-voters stayed home believing it "wouldn't change anything."